THE iconic yellow American school bus is poised to become Britain’s pupil transport system of the future, the head of the transport giant First Group claimed yesterday.

Moir Lockhead, the chief executive of the UK’s largest transport provider, revealed the company had appointed David Blunkett, the former home secretary, to head an independent commission to examine the case for rolling out US-style buses across Britain.

Mr Lockhead, speaking after First Group’s annual general meeting in Aberdeen, said the use of yellow school buses, operating a virtual door-to-door service, would result in improved safety for pupils and cut traffic congestion by taking up to 50 school-run cars off the road at peak times for every yellow bus on the road.

The Aberdeen-based transport giant was the first company in Britain to pilot the use of the yellow school bus in Britain in 2002 with the introduction of three pilot schemes in England and at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon College.

First Group now has fleet of 180 buses taking 8,000 pupils to school each day. In the United States, through its subsidiary FirstStudent, the company has fleet of 23,000 yellow buses taking more than two million pupils to school on a daily basis.

Mr Lockhead said: “I am personally convinced that yellow buses are the future of school transport in this country. But we would have to get the economics right.”

He revealed that research commissioned by First Group, had shown 86 per cent of British parents would like to send their children to school in dedicated school buses. But the research also showed almost 40 per cent of primary pupils now get to school by car - almost four times more than their parents’ generation, while 21 per cent of secondary school children are driven to school - over three times the number driven among their parents’ generation.

Mr Lockhead: “Our own experience of operating yellow school bus schemes both in the UK and in North America shows that this is a tried and tested way of delivering a high quality, safe and reliable home to school transport system.

“The schemes deliver benefits to a wide range of groups and offer a win-win situation for everyone involved.

“The feedback from the trials is excellent.

“The kids think the buses are cool because they are an icon. They recognise them from American films and TV and enjoy travelling in them.

“We are told by research that the bus becomes an extension the classroom. They get rid of all the gossip on the bus so that by the time they get to the classroom they are ready to work. And truancy levels have been reduced dramatically.”

But Mr Lockhead stressed: “The most important benefit is the security with this door-to- door service we run.”

The major question mark was how the service could be funded, he said. The pilot projects have been funded by a mixture of local authority and business support, and a parental charge.

Iain Coupar, the director of marketing for Lothian Buses, said : “If what is proposed is to replace the current motley collection of lowest priced school contract buses with high-quality, American-style, yellow school buses then that’s a positive step which I would have thought everybody would welcome.

“It wouldn’t affect a company like Lothian because in a city like Edinburgh over 90 per cent of the schoolchildren live less than three miles from school and therefore use the ordinary service bus or walk. They are not entitled to free school travel.”

Mr Blunkett said: “With such powerful features in their favour we owe it to society to evaluate the best ways of delivering this sort of service and making recommendations on how we provide incentives to schools and local authorities to do so.”

Yesterday’s AGM was lobbied by American trade unionists accusing First Group’s American subsidiary of anti-union bias - claims denied by the board.

Related topic

- «news.scotsman.com»
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1340

(12-08) 04:00 PST Dallas — - Consumer electronics retailer CompUSA said Friday that it will go out of business after the holidays following sale of the company to Gordon Brothers Group LLC, a restructuring firm. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

CompUSA of Dallas operates 103 stores, which plan to run store-closing sales during the holidays.

Privately held CompUSA, controlled by Mexican financier Carlos Slim Helu’s Grupo Carso SA, said discussions were under way to sell certain stores in key markets. Stores that can’t be sold will be closed.

Gordon Brothers will also try to sell the company’s technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, and its online business, CompUSA.com. It would be up to the buyers whether to continue the CompUSA name.

CompUSA has struggled for nearly a decade with falling prices on personal computers, its most important product, and competition from big-box retailers such as Best Buy.

The slowing growth in computer sales has affected other companies.

Dell Inc.’s U.S. consumer sales fell 26 percent in the first half of this year, which could have accelerated the PC-maker’s announcement this week that it will sell machines at Best Buy.

CompUSA was founded in 1984 as software seller Soft Warehouse, then branched out into computers. It took on the CompUSA name and went public in 1991. It bought Tandy’s Computer City chain.

Slim bought his first stake in the company in 1999 and took it private the next year in an $800 million buyout. The chain went through several CEOs and tried different turnaround strategies, such as a move this year to focus on core customers such as gadget lovers and small-business owners.

CompUSA closed more than half its stores this spring and got a cash infusion of $440 million to restructure.

During the wind-down, Bill Weinstein and Stephen Gray, managing partner at CRG Partners, will run the company. The chain’s current chief executive, Roman Ross, will serve in an advisory role, CompUSA said.

Gordon Brothers created an affiliate, Specialty Equity LLC, to handle the deal. DJM Realty, a Gordon Brothers Group affiliate, will review leases of CompUSA’s store locations.

Less that 24 hours after his race-fixing trial dramatically collapsed at the Old Bailey, Kieren Fallon today became embroiled in fresh controversy over a failed drugs test. The 42-year-old tested positive for a banned substance after riding Myboycharlie in the Group One Prix Morny at Deauville on August 19.

The six-time champion rider now faces an anxious wait for the results of the B sample from laboratories before his fate is confirmed.

“I can confirm that the story is true but it is a matter we are dealing with together with [French racing authority] France Galop and it is something we are not able to comment on,” said Fallon’s solicitor, Christopher Stewart-Moore. “I am not in receipt of the actual B-sample results. The positive test came after he rode Myboycharlie in the Prix Morny at Deauville on August 19.”

Fallon has previously served a six-month suspension imposed by France Galop for testing positive for a metabolite of a prohibited substance in June 2006. He was suspended from December 7.

As the Irish Turf Club, under which he is licensed, have an agreement with other racing jurisdictions to reciprocate bans of this nature, he was also unable to ride in Ireland.

In a similar incident, jump jockey Dean Gallagher was banned for 18 months when he failed a second drugs test in 2002. Coolmore have stood by their man through the arduous court case at the Old Bailey, but the news will come as an added blow to Fallon’s employers. “We are aware that the B sample has not yet confirmed the test,” said a spokesman.

Paul Struthers, spokesman for the British Horseracing Authority, added: “It’s difficult for us to comment on it as it has occurred under the jurisdiction of another country.”